Completions, TDs and football cards: Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza gets Heisman talk

When you’re hot, you’re hot. And you get a football card made of you.

You could purchase a “Bowman U NOW” card of Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza earlier this week for $11.99. Five cards cost $49.99, ten cards $89.99 and 20 cards $169.99.

Topps Inc. made them and randomly inserted pieces of a football from last week’s Indiana win over Illinois in some of them. Mendoza completed his final 17 passes in the 63-10 shellacking, completing 21 of 23 throws overall for 267 yards and five touchdowns.

Sorry, the offer to commemorative Mendoza and the game ended Thursday. But it shows you how much helium the Hoosiers and their QB have going into Saturday afternoon’s game against the Iowa Hawkeyes at Kinnick Stadium (2:35 p.m. kickoff/Peacock).

Indiana is ranked 11th in the nation this week. FanDuel has Mendoza listed as its favorite to win the Heisman Trophy.

“I thought he took a major step forward last week and again this week,” Indiana Coach Curt Cignetti said postgame Saturday night. “Really had a lot of confidence in him going into the game. I think his progress has really accelerated the last couple weeks, and I thought he was right on target.”

Mendoza couldn’t realistically be much better than he has been so far this college football season. He has completed 76 of 99 passes (76.8 percent) in four games for the Hoosiers for 975 yards, 14 touchdowns and zero interceptions.

He also has rushed for a pair of scores.

The 6-foot-5 red-shirt junior transferred in during the offseason from the University of California, where he spent three years. Mendoza didn’t play as a true freshman in 2022, started eight games for the Golden Bears in 2023 and all 12 last season.

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He was a highly coveted guy who had an offer from Georgia, among others. A Miami native of Cuban descent, he picked Indiana for various reasons, including that his younger brother Alfredo is a sophomore quarterback at the school.

"He will do everything he can to be the best he can be,“ Cignetti said. ”It means a lot to him. He wants to be great."

It has been a seamless transition offensively for Indiana, which had Kurtis Rourke quarterback it last season to a surprising berth in the FBS playoffs. OK, stunning berth considering the moribund history of the program.

Cignetti came in from James Madison University and made an incredible debut.

"The player development here, especially this staff, their last four quarterbacks have all been players of the year and the only one that wasn't was Kurtis Rourke, who finished in the Heisman voting last year," Mendoza told CBS Sports.

Offensive coordinator Mike Shananan and quarterbacks coach Chandler Whitmer also were part of the reason Mendoza ended up in Bloomington.

"To have an offensive-minded coaching staff was extremely important for me, and to get that development was really important for me,“ he said. ”Because whenever I would talk to people - former coaches, mentors - they were like we really think you're doing well, but to take that next level and really get where you want to go, aka the NFL, you really need to be a bit more polished and more consistent. That was a big thing I was looking to accomplish at Indiana."

Mendoza, who also threw five touchdown passes two weeks ago against Indiana State, .... is emerging as a top NFL prospect. You take his size, his skills, his processing ability and his intelligence (he graduated from Cal in three years with a business administration degree), and there is a lot to like.

"Early in the season ... I wanted to have too perfect of a season,“ Mendoza said postgame Saturday night. ”I was trying to force completions here and there. But as soon as I kind of went back and was coached by Coach Whitmer, Coach Shanahan, Coach Cignetti, (it was) 'Hey, you gotta stick to the process, one play at a time, zero-zero, no emotion.’ I got back to being who I am. Trying to accelerate my footwork, finish throws, and really just trust my eyes and to rip the ball."

“I don't have a Heisman vote, but I'd vote for him based on what I have seen,” said Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz. “He gets the ball out extremely quick. It's going to be tough to even get a hand on him. And he'll run it. But when he runs it, they have designed runs for him and then they also have ... he'll flush it out, but he's looking down, he'll look to maybe throw on the run, which is tough to defend.”

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